Effects of the Response Requirement on Rats' Choice between Probabilistic Reinforcers.

Subjects persist more or wait out delays longer than optimal, given the reward structure of the environment, the availability of information about the past and the future, and the certainty about the consequences. Evaluating whether animals estimate the value of uncertain consequences based on an ef...

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Published in:Psychological Record Vol. 73; no. 2; pp. 277 - 288
Main Authors: Yáñez, Nataly, Bouzas, Arturo, Segura, Alejandro
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Jun2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jun2023
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        10.1007/s40732-023-00542-4
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        atl: Effects of the Response Requirement on Rats' Choice between Probabilistic Reinforcers.
      aug:
        au:
          Yáñez, Nataly
          Bouzas, Arturo
          Segura, Alejandro
        affil:
          Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones en Comportamiento, Universidad de Guadalajara, 180 Fco. de Quevedo, Col. Arcos Vallarta, 44130, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
          Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
      su:
        Rats
        Sustainable investing
        Probability theory
      sug:
        subj:
          Investment Advice
          Miscellaneous Financial Investment Activities
          All Other Animal Production
          Rats
          Sustainable investing
          Probability theory
      keyword:
        Choice
        Probabilistic reinforcers
        Response requirement
        Sunk cost effect
        Value
        Choice
        Probabilistic reinforcers
        Response requirement
        Sunk cost effect
        Value
      ab: Subjects persist more or wait out delays longer than optimal, given the reward structure of the environment, the availability of information about the past and the future, and the certainty about the consequences. Evaluating whether animals estimate the value of uncertain consequences based on an effort already spent is critical to revealing the mechanisms and rules organisms use to choose under uncertainty. To explore the effects of the effort investment on uncertain environments, we evaluated rats on a discrete-trials choice procedure in which they had to fulfill a response requirement to reach the choice point. Subjects had to choose between alternatives with equal reinforcement probabilities (both.50) in some conditions or different reinforcement probabilities (.25 vs..75) in other conditions. In addition, we separated the response requirement and choice phases to favor the discrimination between the prior investments and the prospects of the current choice. We manipulated the reinforcement probabilities, the presence or absence of the response requirement (R), and the alternative on which the rats had to fulfill the requirement; it was on one alternative (Experiment 1) or both alternatives (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the reinforcement probability of each alternative guided the rats' choice, not past effort. Separating the effort phase from the choice phase could change the investment context, leading the animals to focus on the consequences and not integrate the effort already done into the alternatives' value.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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